Buffalo’s “High-Line“ Competition: Reimagining the DL&W Corridor
Image: courtesy- WNYLC
Sponsor: Western New York Land Conservancy Type: Open, International, one-stage, ideas Eligibility: Professionals, students, teams Fee: none Language: English Timetable: 11 January 2018 – Q&A period ends 10 February 2018 – Registration deadline 15 February 2018 – Submission deadline Jury: • Charles Davis II, Assistant Professor of Architectural History and Criticism, University at Buffalo • Ken Greenberg, Principal of Greenberg Consultants/author of Walking Home – the life and lessons of a city builder • Sara Heidinger, President of the Old First Ward Community Association/co-owner Undergrounds Coffee House & Roastery • Chris Reed, Founding Director of Stoss Landscape Urbanism/Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design • Robert Shibley, Professor and Dean of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning/UB Campus Architect/Senior Fellow at the UB Regional Institute • Janne Sirén, Director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery • Ana Traverso-Krejcarek, Manager of the High Line Network, at Friends of the High Line
Awards: First Place: $7,500 Second Place: $3,000 Third Place: $1,000
Community Choice Award: $3,000
Proposals should:
Align with the 2018 community vision plan’s guiding principles and strategies (available at wnylc.org/dlw and from the Supporting Materials and Data website);
Incorporate inspirational, innovative and inclusive urban design that is practical and achievable. An initial cost estimate for the construction of the trail and greenway is approximately $21 million;
Enhance natural wildlife habitats and use native plants; Consider connections and amenities;
Ensure connections to adjacent parks, trails and the waterfront as well as possible features and amenities within the context of the surrounding geography and land use;
Consider locations of trail and greenway entrances and access implications on existing communities and amenities, including both primary and secondary entrances to the corridor;
Explore the potential for additional recreational amenities adjacent to the corridor:
Incorporate comfort stations and respite areas along the corridor that provide, for example, restrooms and nursing stations.
Promote access for multiple users and uses:
Accommodate the potential for future consideration of light rail along the corridor, with particular attention to the western most section of the corridor between the DL&W terminal and Louisiana Street.
Strive for universal access.
Consider year-round uses and access, including winter uses in a cold-weather climate.
Design each area to fit the context of the surrounding neighborhoods and consider several of the key features in the four different sections of the corridor described on the following pages.
Detroit’s Dia Plaza competition is hardly unique in initiating a search for urbanistic solutions to a cultural cluster. Vienna, Berlin, Mesa, Fort Worth, Chicago’s Millennium Park and Paris’ Parc de la Villette are just a few examples of projects where the focus on spaces between buildings, and arriving at a connective plan to infuse new energy into the site, has been the primary goal of other projects. All of these have been faced with their own challenges: solutions for some have been relatively simple—Vienna’s Museum Quarter and Berlin’s Forum—while others such as Paris’ La Villette and Mesa’s Downtown Plaza represent a more challenging subject spatially. In the case of Detroit, the aim of the competition was clear: “The design competition centers around enhancing and enlivening the DIA’s exterior campus and aims to connect all the institutions with a beautiful series of settings that support all types of programming and public art.”
Form and Dichroic Light Scott Hall at Carnegie Mellon University Michelle LaFoe and Isaac Campbell OFFICE 52 Architecture Forward by Cesar Pelli, FAIA Introduction by Michael J. Crosbie, FAIA Leete”s Island Books, Maine USA Hard cover; 96 pages in color ISBN 9780918172709
In his introduction to Form and Dichroic LIght, Michael Crosbie never mentions the term, “wild card,” to describe Office 52’s participation in the invited competition for the Carnegie Mellon Engineering Building. The four finalists, picked from a list of 17 firms, also included three household names: ZGF, Wilson, and BCJ (Bohlin Cywinski, Jackson). So what possible chance could a firm, which had just recently opened a small office in Portland, Oregon, have against a competition lineup of this magnitude? But as OFFICE 52 Principal, Isaac Campbell explained, as a small firm, “we were quite nimble,” and the $50,000 stipend the firms all received to produce a design could allow OFFICE 52 more time to undertake the research involved than might be the case with a larger office, where a cost controller is constantly focusing on the operation.
Milton Keynes, known simply as MK, represented one of the more significant results of the UK’s “new town” programs from the 1950s and 60s. Situated almost equidistant between Oxford and Cambridge, and within easy access from London, the city had everything one might expect from a modern community—except a university. For a city having a population exceeding 250,000, and projected to have 500,000 inhabitants by 2050, that will all change, as a competition supported by the MK Council (MKC) and Cranfield University has resulted in five firms competing for the opportunity to design a higher educational institution to eventually accommodate 15,000 students.
If cities in the U.S. are anticipating funding from government entities to solve a dire need for affordable housing, they should be prepared for a long wait. The national government, a traditional source of funds for such projects, has shown little if no interest in the issue, and state and local sources are at a minimum. To exacerbate the problem, the construction cost of affordable housing has risen exponentially the the past few decades. Gone are those days when architects such as Oakland-based Michael Pyatok could build affordable housing for $100 a square foot.
The Rails to Trails program, which gained momentum after the1984 Federal Land Banking Law—supported by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy—has seen over 24,000 miles of trails established where rail lines once existed. Some sites were strictly urban, while others, sometimes over 100 miles in length, were primarily rural, while others combined some of both.
The reunification of Germany in 1989 not only had a great impact on the lives of many Germans, especially those living in the former DDR,but together with the decision to move the nation’s capital from Bonn to Berlin resulted in two major international design competitions in 1992: the first was to convert the existing Reichstag building into a home for the German parliament, the second being the Spreebogen planning competition, which included a chancellery for the head of state as well as needed buildings nearby for the Federal government.
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